This social experiment is not making the anxiety any worse. I've had three people absolutely love my hair. Baristas of a certain age and one elderly lady who had been thinking of it after she saw the seniors at a class reunion commercial; the one where two older women saw some girls walk out with boxes of funky colors. So they went with some red violet hair. As I said earlier, for the most part, no one bats an eye. I even ran into my third grade teacher in the grocery store when it was still bright purple... she didn't even flinch. Of course, those teachers may have known back then that I was going to bust loose in my thirties or forties. Except for some really uptight people at my most local grocery store the hair has been a non issue.
A non issue for most. My most local grocery store is less than 2 miles from the house. I prefer ALDI but there are things that ALDI doesn't do, bottle returns being the key here. The short walk to the return center got sideways stares from stoic men only 10 years older than me, a few eyebrows from the old old guys with the optometrist's sunglasses, and deadly glares from nearly every woman who was in the joint. And it was packed. I forgot we were coming up on the major barbecue holiday. Any way, it was hilarious. Even the employees who were waiting to punch in stuck their heads around the color, looked at me and got all buggy-eyed. Hilarious. Most of the glaring came from women my OWN age or only a few years older.
I should mention here that I live in a trailer park where most of my white trash neighbors have tats and tats and tats. And the men all look at me like I just flipped God the finger. The trailer park is the only thing that is progressive about the micro-chasm of the larger city I live in. This is the last frontier for the God-fearing, right-wing, conservative, churchgoing, family values, capitalist WASP (but Catholic), country music loving, male-centric folk in town. While this is not really true, this is what the vast majority of people that I have encountered here actually believe. It is like 1950 out here. But of course while everyone is complaining about progress and the decline of the middle class they are also the ones driving the biggest, baddest, and newest model of car. So I am a bit perplexed if progress is bad in general or not. This is also a major "redneck" hub.
Changing any thing that God made is a sin. Unless it is the landscape, bull-doze and frack the hell out of it. Put up parking lots and the tallest buildings you can find. If it brings in revenue then there is automatic absolution. Color, cut and style your hair in any way that is not your natural hair color at birth and you've offended God. I said previously, and I say it again because it is hilarious (to me), I just helped God make up his mind how my hair is supposed to look cause he seemed to not be able to decide himself. I looked like a calico or a tortie! Every natural color God ever made was in my hair. So if He isn't bothered by the changes why is everyone else?
It is temporary. It washes out. In fact after 4 washes it is almost gone. The darker parts of my hair are nearly back to normal, except for that tinge in which you question what you are seeing. So how do I know that wasn't the looks I was getting at the grocer? Because no one glares when they are curious. The face muscles twist in different ways. Curiosity softens the face, it doesn't harden the jaw line and make people's back go rigid.
The adventure was interesting. And enlightening. I might repeat it again someday.
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